According to a City of Austin release, representatives with the City’s Economic Development and the project development team closed on the GWTP property (aka “Block 1) on January 31st. The development team is Trammell Crow, the Hanover Company, and Pacific Life Insurance.

Block 1 is a pivotal downtown waterfront development. It will improve connectivity with Second Street through to Nueces Street, the new Central Library, and the Seaholm District.

Orientation of Block 1

Summary of what we know about Block 1:

Located at Cesar Chavez and San Antonio Street.

Total project size is approximately 1.7 million square feet of mixed use development.

Block 1 totals 1.776 acres of land

38 floor three-tiered mixed-use tower

expect 440 apartments, including 50 affordable units

40,000 square feet of office and retail space.

The residential component is still being referred to as apartments for rent, and given Hanover’s participation we’ll take that at face value. (Hanover developed the Ashton). We should see site work commence in February with public streets and utility work, including the extension of Second Street.

Back in August we caught a glimpse of what Block 1 tower could look like. According to today’s release, the development team continues to signal it will be a 38 story building with a three-tier design, which is consistent with the rendering and elevations we’ve seen.

If you look at the downtown skyline from the south (78704), you’ll notice there’s a giant gap in the skyline between the AMLI on 2nd to the east and 360 Condos to the west. This project should fill that gap nicely.

More importantly, the walkable connectivity this project brings cannot be understated. It’s literally creating more “grid” and that’s perhaps the greatest upside this project can deliver to city-dwellers.

-Jude

South and East Elevation Drawings for Block 1 by Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB)